St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-12-08
THE STARVING In TURKEY.

Recent letters from Mr.. and Mrs.
Montgomery from Adana, Turkey, re-
cord the continuance of the dreadful
famine in that land and the pressing
need of further help to save many lives
from death by actual starvation. For
eighteen months there has been no
rain and the crops of the past year
were wholly or partially failure. As
sistance must be given until another
summer or multitudes will suffer the
pangs of hunger and many perish of
actual starvation. No confidence is
betrayed if we here copy some para
graphs from private letter of Mrs.
Montgomery, dated Nov. s.:
az think | know pretty we'll how
barren many of the farms are in north
ern Vermont but it seems to me if
many of the good people there could
be brought face to face with the living
distress over here they would be glad
to reach out help in some way. Mr..
Montgomery has received some over
thirteen hundred pounds sterling, and
Js
dred pounds are now i'm Mr.. Peets'
hands, believe, but it will not be at
all adequate to our winter needs.
"Oh, if you could see and hear what
am compelled to every day you
wonld not wonder at my being con-
strained to utter this cry for help, if
there was any hope of it's reaching a
responsive ear. l wish you could feel
as do, a pair of eager keen black
eyes, that are looking up to me from
the floor as | write! A girl of fifteen
years old, came to me last week beg
ging to go to school. She only hoped
to learn to read. | thought she could
do it in year, at her age, and with
her evident quickness of perception.
Miss Tucker paid the five piastres for
one terms tuition in the school and
got her primer. But the child hadn't
morsel of food to eat l ought to
tell you, perhaps, that at her age to be
willing to go through the streets to
school and begin learning her letters,
is a triumph over Eastern iejudice
that you can hardly estimate, and we
felt she ought to be encouraged. This
girl came to me this noon to show me
her primer her face all aglOw with her
new interest, and then she said, 'but
oh, | am SO hungry, so hungry, | can't
studyr and burst into tears. She is
waiting now for the chairman of the |
relief committee to come. Meanwhile
she is watching me with her piercing
eyes, which are yet soft black, as |
write. l cannot help a feeling as ifI
this letter was thereby passed through |
her heart to yours. Possibly she is
if she ever will be able to
write, as well as read,
San old lady came in this forenoon.
| have known her for twenty years.
Just that time ago our first winter in
Adana, we were the guests for three
weeks of her son, who was the pastor
of the Protestant church here. 1.-THE |
pastor son is i'm Aintab now, but with |
a salary that only enables him to do
for his own family.) She is in greatly
reduced circumstances, and is obliged
to ask help from this famine fund
which is exceedingly trying. The old
woman said that nothing but the cries
of her grand children would start her
out. 'We old folks can stand some
pinching from hunger, but the chill
lren, the children, they can but cry,
and that breaks our hearts !"
Such appeals as these should bring
I response from every sympathetic
heart. 1t seems wicked to waste a
,rumb of food when fellow beings are
Dinched and dying of hunger. Many
Of these poor people have sold for food
every vestige of furniture and utensil,
Ind even the rug they used for a bed
md sleep on the bare ground. When
his sad state of affairs comes to the
knowledge of people who know Mr..
md Mrs. Montgomery, as they are
,nOwn in this town and state, il must
Ict like personal and irresistible ap-
zeal from them.
In view of these facts and the ur-
,ency of the need, the CaledOnian will
eceive, acknowledge and forward
money to Mr.. Montgomery to be used
or the relief of the starving poor.
'mall sums gratefully received-larger
ums not refused. Remember that ten [
ents will feed a hungry being there
me day, and that by means of the tel
graph and modern facilities, funds
an be realized upon in the famine dis
riot and turned into bread i'm less than
ne week from the time they are con- :
ributed.